Join SDS to protest Bush at the 2006 commencement at the US Merchant Marine Acadamy.

By Tom Good

New York, NY - George W. Bush is speaking at the 2006 commencement at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY on the morning of June 19. Join Students for a Democratic Society and friends in confronting Bush's criminal acts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recent revelations of atrocities in Haditha and Ishaqi and elsewhere clearly reveal the barbarity of the US Government's actions. In an effort to end the US war crimes, stop the use of torture and eliminate "pre-emptive" invasions, SDS New York City is calling for a nonviolent protest at the Vickery (Main) Gate of the USMMA at 10:00 AM on Monday, June 19, 2006.

STOP US WAR CRIMES: JOIN SDS IN A PROTEST AT THE US MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY

New York, NY - George W. Bush is speaking at the 2006 commencement at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY on the morning of June 19. Join Students for a Democratic Society and friends in confronting Bush's criminal acts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recent revelations of atrocities in Haditha and Ishaqi and elsewhere clearly reveal the barbarity of the US Government's actions. In an effort to end the US war crimes, stop the use of torture and eliminate "pre-emptive" invasions, SDS New York City is calling for a nonviolent protest at the Vickery (Main) Gate of the USMMA at 10:00 AM on Monday, June 19, 2006.

Doug Viehmeyer an event organizer with Bergen County SDS (NJ), said: "The architects of the Iraq and Afganistan wars and occupations are clearly war criminals. While the military personnel are directly responsible for the recent atrocities in Iraq the ultimate responsibility lies with the civilian and military leadership that orchestrated the wars. They must be confronted - and stopped." Viehmeyer added: "This is a nonviolent act of civil resistance and we urge everyone to join us in the streets."

"We are asking people to bring noisemakers: pots and pans and other weapons of mass democracy," said Thomas Good of Movement for a Democratic Society, the post-grad wing of SDS. "We are nonviolent but we will not be silent - what we are seeing here is not a liberal democracy gone somehow wrong. This is an emerging fascism and it is our duty as residents of the US to stop the madness," he added.

The action has been endorsed by Cindy Sheehan, AfterDowningStreet.org, Left Turn magazine and is open to the public.

To get to the US Merchant Marine Academy:

By Train: From Penn Station (34th St & 7th Ave), take the Port Washington branch of the Long Island Railroad to the Great Neck Station (about 35 minutes). Take the "N58" Long Island Bus to the Academy ($2.00 - exact change).

By Car: Long Island Expressway to Exit 32/Little Neck Parkway. Left (heading north) onto Little Neck Parkway for 3/4 mile, to Northern Boulevard. Right on Northern Boulevard/Route 25A. Go east through the village of Little Neck for several traffic lights to the intersection with Great Neck Road. Go left (north) on Great Neck Road, then straight (bearing left as roads fork off to the right). Continue north. The road becomes Bayview Avenue, then West Shore Road (total distance: 2.5 miles). At end of West Shore Road, turn right on to Kings Point Road. At the next stop sign turn left onto Steamboat Road. The main gate is one block ahead.

SDS is an education and social action organization dedicated to increasing democracy in all phases of our common life. It seeks to promote the active participation of young people in the formation of a movement to build a society free from poverty, ignorance, war, exploitation, racism and sexism.

Students for a democratic society? Why that? Why not students for a socialist society, or a republican society, or an anarcho-syndicalist society? Its time to change the name.

PS The 1960's happened half a century ago and they are never coming back. For those who were there they weren't so hot (everyone was broke). You obviously weren't alive then and are wowed by the idea of cheap pot and easy sex.

Why that? Because we need a multi-issue, anti-authoritarian, student-led organization that builds bridges with non-student members of the community. Because people should participate in and have control over the decisions that affect their lives and the resources on which they are dependent. Because it is the responsibility of youth and students to carry on the fight against imperialism. Because the dominant organizations on the left are authoritarian in nature and refuse to give youth and students a voice within the organization and refuse to give students the power to determine the direction of the organization and to define it - so it's time students build their own movement. Because we are faced with the realization, like generations before us, that we do not live and have never lived in a democratic society. Because we are all students (regardless of enrollment status or age) because we are all always learning, in order to bring about radical social and political change we need to be well educated and have an understanding of history. "EACH ONE, TEACH ONE!"

P.S. - This isn't the first organization that has been revived in recent years. Take the Anarchist Black Cross Federation - they were defunct for decades until activists in the 1980s realized that there was a need for an anti-authoritarian organization to free political prisoners and tear down the walls.

It's not some small group of nostalgic aging hippies that are "bringing back" the 1960s. The American RULING CLASS has created a climate of social necessity for wide-spread and militant student opposition to America's imperial adventures around the world.

The re-emergence of SDS is something to be WELCOMED!

Why Not?

Jun 14, 2006 09:31AM EDT

Dug

People question why we would bring back SDS. I suppose the name issue merits discussion but why not reclaim the mantle of the largest student radical organization in the history of the US (and perhaps in the history of the "west") As M(A)TT pointed out many former SDSers have been active in supporting our cause. The basic issue has nothing to do with with nostalgia but it has everything to do with building a mass based, anti-sectarian/anti-authoritarian, student movement against the system. A lot of our detractors seem to be life-stylists bent on denying the need for such a movement. I guess all of their armchair activism has done a lot of good in opposing the current proto-fascism in the US, the resurgent imperialism compounded by the Iraq occupation and the further pauperization at home of vulnerable communities. AK Gupta correctly pointed out at the left forum and in the indypendent that the "anarchist/direct action movement" has played a minor, if not insignificant role in opposing the war (beyond the direct action to stop the war mobe in San Fran in 2003). I guess 130,000 dead iraqis aren't much of a concern to anarchists. That is not to say that anarchists have been totally absent from the movement to end the war (as in counter recruitment in BK) but they have been surely missing as a loud militant voice within the larger movement. The whole anti-mass tendency within some anarchist grouplings seems to me totally misguided. What will building marginal "counter-institutions" accomplish that will help the Iraqi's throw off the boot of US imperialism? Sure, dual power and counter institutions are certainly important to building a culture of resistance, but how will tiny radical enclaves ever expand and energize a anti-systemic mass movement? A powerful, militant, youth and student movement can only better the hopes of a truly revolutionary movement. Check out France, Chile, Thailand, or even Iraq (where University Students play a part time role in the national liberation guerrilla struggle).

The magic words are:Up against the wall motherfuckers, this is a stick up! Dug

I just wanted to make a quick point. I couldn't really trell if Dug was in SDS or not; it seemed like he was favorable towards it no matter what. However, concerning you anarchist comments, I just wanted to let make it known that a good part of the new SDS is comprised of anarchists (I being one of them). Well, that's all I wanted to say.

I hope people come out for this event. I, unfortunatelu, will not be there because I have some IWW stuff to do (contract negotiations, sorry guys!) Give them fascists hell!

John C. Pace SDS IWW NYMAA

Pie Doom

Jun 18, 2006 09:58PM EDT

Doom Pie

Any organization that is comprised largely of anarchists is a) doomed to failure, and b) really really doomed to failure if it continues to have anything to do with Aron "The Pieman" Kay.

oh jesus...

Jun 19, 2006 12:25PM EDT

O' Mystery Gobbler

"Because the dominant organizations on the left are authoritarian in nature and refuse to give youth and students a voice within the organization and refuse to give students the power to determine the direction of the organization and to define it - so it's time students build their own movement."

Oh like who?

The left is "authoritarian?"

WTF does that mean? This has no actual examples of political disagreement. It flatters the "direction" of students without saying what it is. Typical demagogic flapjacks.

Grow up. Don't like hearing that? Then grow the fuck up.

Students have all kinds of politics. The fact that they are no more or less anarchist that the rest of the world seems lost on you. By your definition, everyone is an authoritarian, so why shouldn't they form "authoritarian" groups, since any group that engages in politics is, by your definition, essentially "authoritarian" even if they spend all their time fighting an authoritarian government and social system.

BTW: Maybe one day you'll learn what authoritarianism is. The left never kicked you in the teeth you cranky goof. They don't censor your publications. They build the movements and events you sit on the margins of complaining about how you've been ignored when all you have to say is that everyone else is full of shit.

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